In 2019, the Department for Education introduced the core content framework (CCF) in initial education in England. The framework, which has been criticised for being heavily shaped by research from cognitive science, has, inadvertently, become the baseline curriculum for initial teacher education. This article explores how experiential learning is being used on a history PGCE course to move beyond the limitations of the CCF and offer student teachers a mode of professional learning that is foregrounded in creativity and critical reflexivity.